Four-day working weeks do not result in any drop-off in revenue or profits, while employees are happier, less stressed and sleep better, a major study has found.
In one of the largest trials yet, 41 companies in sectors including services, consulting, energy and childcare implemented a four-day week in Germany. The trial began in February 2024 and ran for six months.
Prof Julia Backmann, research lead for the project, organised by the 4 Day Week Global organisation, said that firms showed “the same output” even after staff shifted to a four-day week.
“Profit as well as revenue remained stable or relatively stable compared to the same months in the previous year,” she said. “We have a significant decrease in time [worked] but the same outcome, so the conclusion was that there were productivity gains.”
The research, results of which were reported on Friday, involved more than 600 interviews with management and staff before, during and at the end of the trial period. Data was collected through surveys, while heart rates and sleeping patterns were recorded.
There were also control groups who continued to work five days a week, with their results compared against those of staff who had shifted to a four-day week.
“Life satisfaction increased significantly compared to the start of the trial,” Prof Backmann said. “At the end people were more satisfied because of an increase with life and life quality.”
Self-reported findings that stress levels were down and sleeping improved were backed up by data from the digital recording devices.
“For the four-day week employees compared to the five-day control group, they experienced less stress measured in minutes of stress, they experienced more activity measures by the amount of steps they took. They also slept longer compared to the five-day week control group,” said Prof Backmann, who works at the University of Münster.
Will four-day working weeks become the norm?
At the end of the study, 73 per cent of organisations taking part opted to continue with a four-day week, with about half each implementing it permanently and the other half continuing with the trial. Around 20 per cent have moved back to a five-day week, while seven per cent are evaluating the results and are yet to make a decision.
Prof Backmann said that companies may implement a four-day week to become more attractive to potential employees, to improve employee health, to improve productivity or to become more “future-oriented”.
“More than 70 per cent of organisations said they found it easier to attract new talent, especially skilled workers,” she added.
Another of the project’s researchers, Carsten Meier, said that implementing a four-day week required careful planning to realise productivity gains through, for example, finding new methods to collaborate, hold meetings or have “focus times”.
“The challenge of doing the four-day week is that it’s hard work – it’s not something you suddenly switch on,” he said.
In recent years there has been growing interest from companies and employees in the four-day week, with advocates saying that staff can do just as much in four days as in five because they work more efficiently.
Work for many has already been transformed in the post-Covid world by the increased acceptance of working from home, at least in some sectors.
Mr Meier, whose management consultancy, Intraprenör, was a partner in the trials in Germany, said that a four-day week could be a way of making some roles that cannot be carried out from home more attractive.
What is the global picture?
In the Emirates the four-day week is gaining traction, with Sharjah having introduced it for government employees in January 2022.
A government-led pilot programme has been testing the four-day week in the public sector in Dubai, while some UAE private companies have also introduced a four-day week. However, some employees in the country are still required to work a six-day week.
The Greek government introduced a law in July that allowed companies in some sectors to compel staff to work six days a week, with the government saying that the rule was needed to promote growth following an exodus of workers in the wake of the country’s economic crisis, and to support increasing numbers of pensioners.
By contrast, a law that came into force in Belgium in 2022 gives employees the right to request a four-day week, albeit without a reduction in hours.
Four-day week pilots have been held in several countries, including in the UK, where in July the findings of a trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council, a local authority in south-east England, were published.
One of the researchers involved, Brendan Burchell, professor in the social sciences at the University of Cambridge, said that the study was one of the most comprehensive ever, as the authority had “very good data” going back a number of years for 24 key performance indicators (KPIs), such as how it was collecting rent or answering the telephone. Of the KPIs, 11 improved, 11 stayed about the same and two got worse.
“That's the best evidence anyone in the world had got in terms of productivity of the four-day week,” he said.
As well as appearing to improve productivity, the four-day week is popular with employees, Prof Burchell said, with only one to three per cent preferring five days.
“People love doing a four-day week,” he said. “They feel they're better able to recuperate. If you measure anxiety and depression, people's mental health has improved.”
He said that people working a four-day week were not having to “run around like flies” at work but were, for example, having shorter meetings and procrastinating less.
“Some people who've never, ever thought about productivity start coming up with great ideas about how they could change the way they work,” he said.
Can a four-day week really work in every industry?
A large-scale trial of 61 British companies, also organised with 4 Day Week Global and carried out by a range of academics including Prof Burchell, took place in 2022 and reported its results early last year.
After the trial, 56 of the companies said they would continue with the four-day week, with 18 saying the change was permanent.
However, Prof Burchell indicated that companies in sectors such as retail or construction may have found it harder to implement a four-day week. Four days a week may be more difficult for roles such as looking after the elderly, he said.
Also, a four-day week trial in the town of Kerteminde in Denmark reportedly found an increase in fatigue, blamed on staff working longer days.
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
Women:
1. Judith Korir(KEN) 2:22:30
2. Eunice Chumba(BHR) 2:26:01
3. Immaculate Chemutai(UGA) 2:28:30
4. Abebech Bekele(ETH) 2:29:43
5. Aleksandra Morozova(RUS) 2:33:01
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The schedule
December 5 - 23: Shooting competition, Al Dhafra Shooting Club
December 9 - 24: Handicrafts competition, from 4pm until 10pm, Heritage Souq
December 11 - 20: Dates competition, from 4pm
December 12 - 20: Sour milk competition
December 13: Falcon beauty competition
December 14 and 20: Saluki races
December 15: Arabian horse races, from 4pm
December 16 - 19: Falconry competition
December 18: Camel milk competition, from 7.30 - 9.30 am
December 20 and 21: Sheep beauty competition, from 10am
December 22: The best herd of 30 camels
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
PROFILE BOX:
Company/date started: 2015
Founder/CEO: Rami Salman, Rishav Jalan, Ayush Chordia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Technology, Sales, Voice, Artificial Intelligence
Size: (employees/revenue) 10/ 100,000 downloads
Stage: 1 ($800,000)
Investors: Eight first-round investors including, Beco Capital, 500 Startups, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Hala Fadel, Odin Financial Services, Dubai Angel Investors, Womena, Arzan VC
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
